Lively+TDA likely the best choice if you are investing every dollar long-term. There is a great deal of whining about the commission free ETF changes, but that there are still good some very good options in the new commission free list.

Lively+TDA likely the best choice if you are investing every dollar long-term. There is a great deal of whining about the commission free ETF changes, but that there are still good some very good options in the new commission free list.

According to the site, there's only a $2.50 to invest and that's it? That's pretty good, would save me $3 a month.

Does anyone know that if my HSA investments are already at TDA, do I have to sell TDA -> transfer to current HSA -> transfer to new HSA -> transfer to TDA again? Or can I just sign up with Lively and "assign" the investments that are already at TDA to the new provider?

SelectAccount and Schwab are $30 / year. You need to keep $1k in cash. With Schwab's no commission low expense ETFs, it's a pretty worthwhile deal. SelectAccount is the rebranding of Falcon National Bank and HSA Resources.

I also keep the ~$5,000 cash in my HSA Bank account, not only to avoid fees, but I use my HSA as I go so to have that amount of cash available is necessary for my deductible. Everything else gets transferred over to TD to invest.

Doing this makes the fees incurred $0/year which is just a bonus.

Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking. -Marcus Aurelius

Lively+TDA likely the best choice if you are investing every dollar long-term. There is a great deal of whining about the commission free ETF changes, but that there are still good some very good options in the new commission free list.

Does anyone know that if my HSA investments are already at TDA, do I have to sell TDA -> transfer to current HSA -> transfer to new HSA -> transfer to TDA again? Or can I just sign up with Lively and "assign" the investments that are already at TDA to the new provider?

The same question crossed my mind, but I doubt they have any provision for doing so. I'd bet money that you have to liquidate, transfer cash, and repurchase.

But it's a reasonable question to ask Lively customer support. They are very responsive.

I wish I would have seen this thread before I opened an Optum HSA account this past week to transfer my Alliant CU HSA over. I only have $3400 right now and will add another $3400 in January, I plan on keeping $3000 in savings (I think at 0.10%) to avoid penalty and invest the rest for 0.03% fee. For at least the next year or two it doesn't appear my account will be much different than HSA Bank or Lively + TDA. But in a few years when I have more money in the account I may have to look into making a change.

Lively+TDA likely the best choice if you are investing every dollar long-term. There is a great deal of whining about the commission free ETF changes, but that there are still good some very good options in the new commission free list.

Does anyone know that if my HSA investments are already at TDA, do I have to sell TDA -> transfer to current HSA -> transfer to new HSA -> transfer to TDA again? Or can I just sign up with Lively and "assign" the investments that are already at TDA to the new provider?

The same question crossed my mind, but I doubt they have any provision for doing so. I'd bet money that you have to liquidate, transfer cash, and repurchase.

But it's a reasonable question to ask Lively customer support. They are very responsive.

Thanks. Lively said you can do an in-kind transfer within TDA without having to transfer out.

Now that TD will no longer be offering Vanguard ETFs commission free, has anyone done a comparison of the funds that will be available and how to best structure the 3 fund portfolio by using available commission free options?

I've used HSA and TDA since I established my HSA over 10 years ago. I don't pay any fees to HSA, and view the cash they have as part of my cash allocation. TDA gives me free trades whenever I ask for them (rarely), but they have tons of low cost, commission-free index ETFs to choose from. If Fidelity offered individual HSA accounts, I would transfer over only because the bulk of my assets are with them at this stage of the game. There have been some negative reports with respect to HSA Bank's customer service, but I can't speak to that personally as I do not use my HSA as a source of funds and have had no reason to contact them....yet.

Now that TD will no longer be offering Vanguard ETFs commission free, has anyone done a comparison of the funds that will be available and how to best structure the 3 fund portfolio by using available commission free options?

I don't see anything about an inactivity fee. You're limited to a small list of investments, however. I don't believe there are any charges/fees for trading within those limited investment options. https://hsainvestments.com/fundperformance/?p=TBH

I don't see anything about an inactivity fee. You're limited to a small list of investments, however. I don't believe there are any charges/fees for trading within those limited investment options. https://hsainvestments.com/fundperformance/?p=TBH

Search this site for HSA inactivity fee and you'll find it. I would look for you if I weren't on a mobile phone.

"With Lively, it’s simple to invest your HSA funds, plus you can leverage a variety of investment options, including individual stocks, bonds, CDs, over 100 commission-free ETFs, and more than 13,000 mutual funds."

While I am fairly sure you could find lifecycle/target retirement/glide path investment choices from the 13,000 mutual funds, the consensus is to choose from the 6 lowest expense (0.03-0.05%) commission-free ETFs from this [sortable] list:https://research.tdameritrade.com/grid/ ... onfree.asp

Every time I read these threads I'm more and more happy with my Payflex HSA. No monthly fee to invest and access to Vanguard funds. Only requirement is to keep a certain amount of cash which I would do anyways.

Every time I read these threads I'm more and more happy with my Payflex HSA. No monthly fee to invest and access to Vanguard funds. Only requirement is to keep a certain amount of cash which I would do anyways.

Your monthly fee is being paid by your employer. Payflex is not a cost-effective option otherwise.

Every time I read these threads I'm more and more happy with my Payflex HSA. No monthly fee to invest and access to Vanguard funds. Only requirement is to keep a certain amount of cash which I would do anyways.

Your monthly fee is being paid by your employer. Payflex is not a cost-effective option otherwise.

No, it is not. Fees were removed and confirmed employer is not paying them. (If you knew my employer they would never pay these fees anyways)

Every time I read these threads I'm more and more happy with my Payflex HSA. No monthly fee to invest and access to Vanguard funds. Only requirement is to keep a certain amount of cash which I would do anyways.

Your monthly fee is being paid by your employer. Payflex is not a cost-effective option otherwise.

No, it is not. Fees were removed and confirmed employer is not paying them. (If you knew my employer they would never pay these fees anyways)

Paychex's public website in the HSA FAQ, under "Can I invest my HSA funds?", says "Once you open an investment account, a monthly investment fee will be taken out of your HSA cash account. You can view your account fees in the Financial Center of your online account. Select your Health Savings Account from the drop down menu. Click on Fee Schedule on the left side."

It would be very strange for them not to advertise their fee-free status if they are now truly fee-free. (Of course, the $1,000 cash requirement means they're not cost free.)

Every time I read these threads I'm more and more happy with my Payflex HSA. No monthly fee to invest and access to Vanguard funds. Only requirement is to keep a certain amount of cash which I would do anyways.

Your monthly fee is being paid by your employer. Payflex is not a cost-effective option otherwise.

No, it is not. Fees were removed and confirmed employer is not paying them. (If you knew my employer they would never pay these fees anyways)

Paychex's public website in the HSA FAQ, under "Can I invest my HSA funds?", says "Once you open an investment account, a monthly investment fee will be taken out of your HSA cash account. You can view your account fees in the Financial Center of your online account. Select your Health Savings Account from the drop down menu. Click on Fee Schedule on the left side."

It would be very strange for them not to advertise their fee-free status if they are now truly fee-free. (Of course, the $1,000 cash requirement means they're not cost free.)

There was an announcement in September that the monthly fee was eliminated. In the announcement was a new fee schedule. It may not be available to all plans but I did find by searching on the web that my company is not the only one with this fee elimination. Are they a publically available HSA?

I am surprised to learn that so many HSA custodians use a brokerage window at TD Ameritrade.

My employer just switched to HealthEquity, which offers Vanguard funds with an administrative fee and a $2000 cash minimum.

If you make frequent trades (monthly or per paycheck) or hold a lot of funds, HealthEquity might be among the leaders now.

I suspect that losing the fee free ETFs at TDA will push HSA investors into less frequent / annual trades and simplifying HSA investments to one fund, and carrying complexity in other vehicles.

The problem with HealthEquity is that it becomes more expensive than HSA Bank + TDA with higher balances, since it has an AUM fee rather than just a flat monthly fee. Once you get past ~$20k HSA Bank+ TDA is cheaper than HE.

Re Payflex/fees, the fee was $2.50 a month while I was at megacorp. Now that I'm no longer working there, I can keep my HSA at Payflex for a $5/month fee. And you are always required to keep $1,000 in cash, so that's a small drag on returns. I'm considering whether to do that, or move to HSA Authority, which has annual fee of $36, and access to Vanguard index funds, no charge for trades.

I have HSA Bank + Ameritrade. I have to say that I find the Ameritrade website incredibly cluttered and confusing. The hassle of transferring money from HSA to Ameritrade, and then playing around on the Ameritrade site, has been a disincentive for me to really get on top of my investments in my HSA.

Lively for sure. $2.50 per month fee for a TD Ameritrade account and it comes out of a seperate (checking) account. No other fees or minimums. Can invest the first dollar. Very nice website. Easy to use. Easy to transfer money.

SPTM, SPAB, and SPDW are commission free and a good basis for a 3 fund portfolio. Their expense ratios are less than Vanguard's expense ratios, so you will save money there.

To avoid the monthly fees you need to have $5,000 in cash. I believe you will earn 0.15% on that $5000 held, or $7.50/year.

There is a cash drag to holding $5,000 in cash to avoid the monthly fees. How much investment gains are you losing from holding that much cash? $50 for every 1% your investments would have made. So if you make 5% in a year, then you are losing out on $250 in gains when you save $60 in fees, but you lose $7.50 in interest. The cash drag is a reason some people will hold only enough cash in their HSA Bank accounts to cover the fees and invest the rest.

This isn't a big enough deal for me to switch away from HSA Bank. They are well established. I like their user interface. I like the user interface of TD Ameritrade, too, which I have linked to my other TD Ameritrade accounts.

I have HSA Bank + Ameritrade. I have to say that I find the Ameritrade website incredibly cluttered and confusing. The hassle of transferring money from HSA to Ameritrade, and then playing around on the Ameritrade site, has been a disincentive for me to really get on top of my investments in my HSA.

I think this is why most people do it once or twice a year, maybe once in the summer and once at the end of the year. I don't front load my HSA for the obvious reason that you have to have an HDHP all 365 days to max out the contributions. The TDA part is really easy but I've used TDA for years, in fact, I make all investments on the TDA app. Getting it from HSABank to TDA is a few mouse clicks, not something I'd want to do every month especially since it's just a few bucks, but once/twice a year is fine.

I have HSA Bank + Ameritrade. I have to say that I find the Ameritrade website incredibly cluttered and confusing. The hassle of transferring money from HSA to Ameritrade, and then playing around on the Ameritrade site, has been a disincentive for me to really get on top of my investments in my HSA.

Same here. I have HSA Bank + TDA through my employer and there's no auto-invest option like I had with my former HSA. So twice a month I need to do a manual ETF trade in TDA in order to keep my ongoing contributions invested in a DCA manner. Not the worst problem in the world but I wish my HSA could be more set-it-and-forget-it, just like my twice-monthly 401(k) contributions are.

I don't have any major complaints about our HSA Bank + linked Ameritrade brokerage. We keep the minimum at HSA Bank - something like $5,000 - to avoid fees and all the rest is in the linked Ameritrade account in equities. January each year we make our annual contribution. A week later move it to Amritrade. Then a week later allocate into existing ETF per allocation targets. This is a 3 step process we do each year. Over the past 10-years with contributions and equity growth the account has done quite well. On the few occasions I have had to call or communicate via secure e-mail with HSA Bank or Amritrade, they have been straight forward interactions.